In a year's time, the Delhi Metro will not just ferry you from one place to another in the capital but will also offer you an opportunity to make merry with your family in a brand-new theme park.

In a year's time, the Delhi Metro will not just ferry you from one place to another in the capital but will also offer you an opportunity to make merry with your family in a brand-new theme park.

Delhi Metro will set up a theme park near its Shastri Park station in east Delhi through a private operator which will have a variety of recreational facilities, especially for children.

The theme park on a "temporary basis" will come up at an area of approximately 15 hectares near the Metro station within a year’s time and tenders have already been floated for the project.

Since the land is just near the station, the theme park will be easily accessible for the commuters and will come up in a plush green environment with trees around and other activities.

"The theme park will have state-of-art, environment friendly recreational facilities for children and families," a DMRC spokesperson said, adding the decision was taken to effectively use the land available near the station.

"Since the area comes under the ‘O’ zone, we thought of setting up a theme park that will have all green elements," the spokesperson said.

The theme park is part of Delhi Metro’s initiatives to raise resources for funding the Metro Operations through non-fare box revenues.

The new age transport system has rented out its Metro premises to restaurants and various cloth brands and also has malls at several stations.

The spokesperson said the Delhi Metro is open to ideas for the kind of recreational facilities to be set up at the theme park and will hold discussions with various stakeholders concerned.

Once the contract is awarded, the firm has to make operational the theme park in a year’s time.

Interestingly, the new theme park will not have any construction of permanent nature, exhibition hall or drive-in cinema.

This decision was taken as the site lies in ‘Zone O’ of MPD 2021.

Activities permitted in the park must strictly comply with the conditions laid down in the Master Plan and the Zonal Development Plan.

Once the theme park comes up, it will join the likes of Fun 'N' Food Village, Aapno Ghar, Adventure Islands and Children's Park in the capital.

The contract for the new theme park will be for 15 years initially and can be extended by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Delhi Metro currently has a network of around 190 km across the National Capital Region and carries nearly 17 lakh passengers a day through 2,500 trips.